30 Days In Prison

This week in class we watched a show where a guy spends 30 days in prison to see what it would be like.    When we watched this we had a chance to see what it would be like if we ever were arrested.  Some of the stories of the people in jail are sad because most have been in and out their whole life.  My best friends family takes in foster kids while they are waiting to be adopted and just hearing all of the terrible things that these children have been through.  Either one or both of their parents are in jail for dealing drugs or abusive behavior and this kids have to grow up going from home to home waiting to be adopted and not knowing who their real father or mother is.  When I think about the 30 Days in Prison I think that seeing your dad or mom repeatedly going to jail when your younger has a huge impact on how you choose to live your life as you grow up.  Some children end up in jail just like their parents and thats the really sad part.

~Liv

Special Olympics Bocce Ball

Last Sunday, 4/22/12, I volunteered at the Bocce Ball event for Special Olympics.  This experience was great for me.  It was so rewarding to work with all of the athletes and to see their dedication.  This service project reminded me of when we were talking about the values of Americans.  One of the values that was mentioned was our competitiveness.  I would ask all the athletes how they did and if they won their matches and I didn't think there was anything wrong with that at the time.  When it was time for lunch my friend and I sat with some of the athletes from Lamb's Farm.  When I was sitting next to a women athlete, I asked her the question I had been asking the athletes all day, "Did you win your games today?"  When she responded to me she said, "No, my partner and I lost both games but the important part is that we had fun."  Her answer to my question made me stop and realize that I had fallen in to the category of the "typical american".  I had put competitiveness at the top of my priorities.  This women had taught me that the most important part isn't winning, it is to have fun.  As I was falling asleep last night I thought about this more and I realized that this women who I had just met had impacted my life greatly by teaching me that winning isn't everything.  Having fun and being with the people you love is the most important.  It made me realize that I need to check my priorities and stop being so competitive about everything.  She made me realize that instead of asking the athletes if they had won their games or what medals they had gotten, I should have asked them if they were having fun and enjoying the day.  This project was so rewarding for me and I can't wait to volunteer again on May 6th for the Special Olympics Track and Field day at Lake Zurich High School:) 

~Liv

Deviance with Drugs

This week in class we discussed how drugs can be deviant.  We did an activity in class and we tried to classify different drugs into the categories of legal, prescription, illegal misdemeanor and illegal felony.  We didn't know the names of the drugs so we had to use the information given about them to do this.  It was interesting to see all of the groups results because some groups had wanted to make caffeine and nicotine illegal just based on the side effects of them.  This activity helped me to realize that some of the drugs that are legal today really can harm us and their effects are impairing.  Drugs are deviant because people classify them based on what they know they do.  People who do drugs are also deviant because others classify them based on what they are doing and how they are acting.

Deviance

Last week in class we discussed the topic of deviance.  Deviance depends on time period and culture.  Some things that are acceptable in our culture might not be acceptable in others such as holding your significant others hand in public.  As times have changed so has what is known as "norms" or socially acceptable things.  When our parents were growing up tattoos were not acceptable to have and now almost everyone debates whether to get one or not when they turn eighteen.

The "Perfect" Women

This past week in class we discussed how females are influenced by the media.  We watched movies to see how they digitally enhance pictures of models for certain ads.  We watched the extent that they go to to make the model look perfect.  In one case the man who was doing the photoshop used four different bodies of models in order to create that one perfect women.  In our society, the way that women are portrayed on ads gives both men and women a false sense of how a women should look.  Men waste their time trying to find the one perfect ideal women who will measure up to the women in ads and in reality he will never find her because those women aren't real.  Women are greatly impacted by this faulty advertising because they spend most of their life trying new diets and work out plans in order to look exactly like those other women.  There is a rising epidemic of anorexia and bulimia in our society because of the way women are portrayed.  They make models look impossibly skinny and make there skin look virtually pore-less which no one can achieve.  As women, we need to realize how important it is to love the way our body looks and to not chase and unreal image that we could never achieve through healthy means if at all.

~Liv